Key points from the Vance-Walz debate
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The news: Vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz have faced off over abortion, immigration and the escalating violence in the Middle East in their first and only debate of the campaign.
The verdict: In the last debate before American voters go to the polls on 5 November, Vance was widely viewed by pundits to have got the edge over his Democratic rival Walz.
Vance looked to be more confident from the opening seconds of the debate, hosted by CBS News, while Walz tripped over some of his words early on and took some time to settle into the proceedings. While Vance stared at his opponent while Walz was speaking, Kamala Harris’ running mate kept his head down and took notes when Vance spoke.
Vance, a Yale Law graduate, remained more disciplined in his messaging throughout the debate debate, repeatedly tying Harris to Joe Biden which Trump failed to do in the last debate.
Vance’s weakest points were over abortion, a vulnerable issue for Trump and his running mate after the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade, and Trump’s refusal to accept the result of the 2020 election.
Walz was at his worst when the moderators asked if he was in fact in China during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, as he has previously claimed.
"I misspoke on this, I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests," he eventually said after a long answer about why he travelled to China when he was younger.
What they said: Both Vance and Walz sought to politicise the escalating violence in the Middle East, with Vance attempting to tie Harris and Walz to the conflict spilling out of Israel and the threat of Iran’s nuclear program.
“Iran is as close to a nuclear weapon today as they have ever been. And Governor Walz, you blame Donald Trump. Who has been the vice president for the last three and a half years?” he said.
Asked whether he supported a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran, Walz said supported Israel’s right to defend itself but pivoted to claiming that Trump would represent a danger to the world as he didn’t have the diplomatic skills to de-escalate the conflict.
"When our allies see Donald Trump turn towards Vladimir Putin, turn towards North Korea, when we start to see that type of fickleness about holding the coalitions together — we will stay committed," Walz said.
Walz slammed Vance over he and Trump's false claims that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating pets including dogs and cats.
“We could come together and solve this if we didn't let Donald Trump continue to make it an issue, and the consequences in Springfield where the governor had to send state law enforcement to escort kindergartners to school,” Walz said.
Vance responded that Springfield residents have had their “lives destroyed by Kamala Harris' open border”, before moderator Margaret Brennan fact-checked him that the Haitian migrants in Springfield are there legally.
On abortion, which is widely seen as Trump biggest vulnerability, Vance conceded that Republicans have to “do so much better of a job at earning the American people's trust back on this issue where they frankly, just don't trust us”. He added that he wants the GOP to be a “pro-family” party.
When Walz asked Vance to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election, the Ohio senator said: “We're focused on the future".
“That is a damning nonanswer,” Walz replied.
The source: CBS News
